Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, with reference to the communications providers’ voluntary code of practice for an automatic compensation scheme for service issues relating to residential fixed-line telephony and broadband services, published by Ofcom on 1 April 2021, what information her Department holds on the amount of compensation that has been issued by broadband providers for missed repair appointments since the publication of that guidance.

Ofcom’s voluntary industry automatic compensation scheme was launched in April 2019 - with the original signatories including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, and Zen Internet - there are currently 11 providers signed up to the scheme.

The government does not hold data on the automatic compensation scheme, as this scheme is administered by Ofcom.

In 2020, Ofcom’s review of the voluntary compensation scheme showed that the compensation paid by the original five signatories, between July and December 2019 was:

• £9.7m for delayed repair following the loss of service (309,000 cases);
• £1.6m for missed appointment (59,000 cases); and
• £9.5m for delayed provision of a new service (228,000 cases).

Following Ofcom’s review - and from April 2021 - signatories agreed to increase the rate of compensation (on an annual basis) based on the rate of CPI.